Should I full ppf my new white model y?

[cedcor]

I decided to skip it. It’s a car at the end of the day. No amount of PPF will protect my car from my kids, cars parked next to me, or accidents. In all of the cases, I’d be SOL and then I’d have to spend even more money to fix or replace the PPF. I put on Tesla mud flaps and the rear door PPF. Then I just did ceramic spray from Turtle wax myself. I’m taking that $2K I would have spent and putting it toward a new mountain bike.

I will also say, I tried a full rocker PPF set from eBay. It was a nightmare in my novice hands. The edges were hard to wrap so I manually trimmed them. I did one side and wasn’t thrilled with the results. Messy edges and some trapped dirt. Ended up taking it off and just doing the Tesla rear door fin instead of enduring putting on the other side of the fuller rocker set.

 

[ryanjeffords]

I decided to skip it. It’s a car at the end of the day. No amount of PPF will protect my car from my kids, cars parked next to me, or accidents. In all of the cases, I’d be SOL and then I’d have to spend even more money to fix or replace the PPF. I put on Tesla mud flaps and the rear door PPF. Then I just did ceramic spray from Turtle wax myself. I’m taking that $2K I would have spent and putting it toward a new mountain bike.

I will also say, I tried a full rocker PPF set from eBay. It was a nightmare in my novice hands. The edges were hard to wrap so I manually trimmed them. I did one side and wasn’t thrilled with the results. Messy edges and some trapped dirt. Ended up taking it off and just doing the Tesla rear door fin instead of enduring putting on the other side of the fuller rocker set.

You're SPOT ON. I'm in a very similar situation... I have 3 kids and have been driving long enough to know that no matter what you protect, something will still find a way of getting damaged. Case and point: I spent $1600 on full front PPF. 1 week later I pulled into my garage nose first and opened the hatch. It hit my garage door and chipped the lid. OF COURSE... 3 weeks after that we drove to Dallas and caught a rock on the lower panel of my driver door... where the PPF wasn't.

I'm glad I got the PPF I did, but it surely didn't prevent my first two chips.

Since then, I've discovered that while the paint looks great from 3-5'... if you get up close, you'll see millions of little scratches in the clear coat from my kids clawing at the door handles or...just dust blowing by the car that ultimately scratches the clear...

It's a car. Drive it. Enjoy it.

 

[cedcor]

You're SPOT ON. I'm in a very similar situation... I have 3 kids and have been driving long enough to know that no matter what you protect, something will still find a way of getting damaged. Case and point: I spent $1600 on full front PPF. 1 week later I pulled into my garage nose first and opened the hatch. It hit my garage door and chipped the lid. OF COURSE... 3 weeks after that we drove to Dallas and caught a rock on the lower panel of my driver door... where the PPF wasn't.

I'm glad I got the PPF I did, but it surely didn't prevent my first two chips.

Since then, I've discovered that while the paint looks great from 3-5'... if you get up close, you'll see millions of little scratches in the clear coat from my kids clawing at the door handles or...just dust blowing by the car that ultimately scratches the clear...

It's a car. Drive it. Enjoy it.

Yeah definitely. You should see my other car. All kinds of scratches, dents, and even a spot my daughter sanded to be like daddy. My Y is only a few days old so I’m taking some effort now but looking forward to when the novelty wears off and I can just not care.

You’re right too. It looks great from far, but there’s plenty of tiny imperfections if you look closely enough. Nothing where the fix won’t be worse than what’s there. Of course everything looks perfect from my drivers seat too!

 

[BradsY]

So... Just got my car back. FULL Wrap and tint. All I can say is, well, it looks better than new. No, I'm not saying that to self justify the expense. It really looks great. Shop removes all exterior items (cameras, fenders, tail lights, etc) to wrap all edges. They scheduled me to return in one week so they can double check the install and fix/replace anything that needs it. Windshield tint is the only thing with an issue, trapped dust/dirt. They will peel, clean, and replace next week. Only thing not wrapped are the tail lights, I'll have it done next week. Asked them to not reinstall decals, looks clean.

Next project.... Leave California. That's another subject.

Today, just installed the abstractOcean screen swivel. It's badass. Swivel it to get any direct sun glare away from your face is just great.

 

[JohnCE]

I'm planning on getting the full matte PPF for my Y. Some ceramic coat on top of the PPF as well. Is it worth ceramic coating on top of the PPF?

I plan on the full wrap and ceramic. Like the ability just to hose off the car and get it mostly clean.

 

[bryan995]

How much is a full front bumper or hood 5-10 years down the line. Is it cheaper than the cost of front PPF?

 

[dailo]

I got PPF done on my M3 when I first got it, thinking I would keep the car for 10 years. Things changed and now selling it to get a Y, losing all the investment on the PPF. It is nice that it is easier to clean the car, but the few areas that got hit by rocks now have a noticeable tear in the PPF. Not as bad as getting a chip but still noticeable. With that said, going to skip the PPF this time and live with it as I have become less OCD about the defects.

If money isn't an issue, I would definitely do it again but now rather spend the money on acceleration boost and more stock.

 

[kindofblue]

Dailo, It's my understanding that ppf can be repaired/replaced in sections.

 

[dailo]

Dailo, It's my understanding that ppf can be repaired/replaced in sections.

It absolutely can. I just didn't want to spend the money and time to do it.

 

[Lrmatthews18]

Having gone through the exact same questions in my head, I feel I can safely give accurate and relevant advice on this topic.

Buy as much PPF as you can afford or are willing to spend.

I paid $1600 for a full frontal suntek PPF. It was a plotted install as opposed to bulk. 60% of the edges wrap, but there are some visible edges/seams. Whatever. The install itself was done with a close attention to detail and I wasn't willing to spend $3k to have the car dismantled and every edge wrapped. It's just not worth my money.

So 4 weeks after install, I caught a rock on the highway and it hit my driver door leaving 2-3 small gash marks. OF COURSE. No PPF there.

Do I wish I had the car fully PPF'd? I don't know. A full PPF job would have easily been $3-4k. THAT IS A LOT OF MONEY. Like A LOT A LOT. I feel like I hit the sweet spot with what I paid vs what I got... and knowing that I still might catch some damage in other areas...I should just save the difference and use that savings to just do the repairs.

PLUS, like it was stated prior... this is a CAR, not a museum specimen. Go drive it. Get it dirty. Dents and dings and scratches and chips suck, but it's part of car ownership. Do your best to protect your car, but at some point spending thousands upon thousands of dollars on protection is the same as over insuring your car...and then you're just throwing away money.

So again... buy as much PPF as you can afford or are willing to spend.

I love this response.

 

[SDM44]

I got PPF done on my M3 when I first got it, thinking I would keep the car for 10 years. Things changed and now selling it to get a Y, losing all the investment on the PPF.

If money isn't an issue, I would definitely do it again but now rather spend the money on acceleration boost and more stock.

Pretty much this. I bought & took delivery of my Model 3 in late-March 2020, with as it replaced our previous daily commuter 530e (we drive around 18k miles a year just for work). I spent a good amount of money doing a full front PPF, ceramic coating all over car, and then ceramic tint on every window and chrome delete on the Model 3. However, with covid we barely drove it so it sat in the garage for most of this past year. Then one day both the wife and I decided we wanted to get a Model Y instead, so we sold the Model 3 only 10 months later in mid-Feb 2021 with only 4000 miles on the car.

With covid, we never drove it since we worked remotely for the past year, and and it sat in the garage looking pretty most of the time. The Model 3 sold in 1 day of listing it. IMO, I sold the car at a price I was willing to take, but basically giving away the PPF, ceramic coating, tint, and chrome delete for free and taking a loss on that... and that was my choice and I'm fine with it. IMO, you really can't say PPF & tint will add value to a car, as some buyers may or may not see the value in it the same way you do and may have preferred a different brand or installer used.

Regardless, I've again put cash aside for PPF & tint again for our Model Y when we take delivery of it, knowing that it's going to be our daily commuter to work so I want to keep the front protected. My 530e front end got a few decent sized nicks from just daily driving on LA freeways, so I'm willing to pay/invest for full front PPF protection on any car we get as our new daily commuter (even if it wasn't the Model Y), but that's my personal choice.


Also agreed, if money wasn't an issue then I would PPF & ceramic coat all of my cars as soon as I buy them.

 

[ChefMike]

Picked up my MY 5 days ago, have an appt for full wrap this coming Monday. Having concoursas do it, they have a deal this month. Suntek Ultra wrap and Suntek Ceramic tint, $5300 ($47xx for the full wrap alone). Was told this will take 5-6 days to install.
I plan on keeping the car for, hopefully, 8-10 years. Given that, $5k is a small price to pay for many years of not having to deal with touch-ups/chips. Cause, you all know just how clean our roads are out here.

Just curious on how happy you were with the Suntek PPF and tint. Picking my Y up in 2 weeks and trying to decide what to do for PPF & Tint

 

[xabadu]

Depends. I had full front. Loved it.
Ended up getting full bumper because of the dogs jumping in and out.
Regretted not getting full body because random rocks scratched the side of the car.
Also, makes washing the car a breeze
This time, going with xpel stealth for the matte finish as white as my paint as well.

You can say you can pay the same amount or less to repaint the entire car. But, having been in accidents, people don't realize how difficult it is to get the paint to match factory. Even Tesla themselves can barely do it.

Do you happen to have any pics of the white in stealth? Trying to convince my wife to do it to ours.

Also, does PPF alone make the car a "breeze" to wash, or should you also ceramic coat the PPF?

Thanks.

 

[stopcrazypp]

Do you happen to have any pics of the white in stealth? Trying to convince my wife to do it to ours.

Also, does PPF alone make the car a "breeze" to wash, or should you also ceramic coat the PPF?

Thanks.

I did DIY with 3M PPF (not stealth, just regular) and no ceramic coat and it's already a breeze to wash. I just use a regular hose (not high pressure) and don't even need to use soap. Because my water is hard water, I have to dry with microfiber cloths or it will have water marks, but if your water is not hard water, you might not even need to dry. But I wash every 1-2 weeks so it's not super dirty every time.

 

[garumaru]

If you live an area where you need to drive on highways frequently I would recommend protecting at least the front.
Living in GTA and spends driving about 90% of the time on highways it's not just stone chips. Especially with all the maniacs driving 20 to 40kmh over the speed limit, you will be sandblasted and blasted by all other mineral deposits and salts in winter.
I did full frontal on my current car, I would probably do the same when I pick up a Y.

 

[everydaychris]

Do you happen to have any pics of the white in stealth? Trying to convince my wife to do it to ours.

Also, does PPF alone make the car a "breeze" to wash, or should you also ceramic coat the PPF?

Thanks.

Definitely makes it easier with ceramic coating. If you have a pressure washer it comes off super easily. I love it and I get tons of comments on it because it's unique but many people find it hard to justify the price. My bumper still looks like day one with over 25000 miles and a TON of roadtrips. No scratches to worry about. No issues

just came back from mammoth! I did a video on it too if you wanna watch it

 

[xabadu]

Definitely makes it easier with ceramic coating. If you have a pressure washer it comes off super easily. I love it and I get tons of comments on it because it's unique but many people find it hard to justify the price. My bumper still looks like day one with over 25000 miles and a TON of roadtrips. No scratches to worry about. No issues

just came back from mammoth! I did a video on it too if you wanna watch it View attachment 762419


View attachment 762420

Fantastic, thanks! Great vid, too. Appreciate it.

 

[Davidimdpt]

I agree completely but it is better than bare bones.

MY RX 350 has it and for some weird reason someone spilled gravel all over the 5 freeway. It sprayed all over my bumper and hood. When I inspected it at home, there were little white marks all over the bumper and a small nick in the wrap.
It's not sooo thick it's invincible. However, beneath the paint where the nick was, the paint was fine. And the white marks disappeared within a few hours.

As far as resale value that's correct. It's more of an aesthetically pleasing type of thing to have. And I plan on having my car for at least 10 years. One car I had for 10 years was horrible with paint chips all over and it didn't matter how well you washed it, it looked like I had bugs all over the front of my bumper.

In the end, I had it before for 4 years on the front bumper and loved it so much, for my Tesla MY that I love already, I'm doing a full body xpel stealth for 4k.

FYI* with all the Tesla haters out there, it helps to have this protection as well.

Unfortunately they raised their prices significantly and are upcharging for stealth.

 

[JP0430]

That is what I was man. I am leaning right now towards a full front and window tint. $2300 in San Diego.
Still pondering the full wrap but have till next Wednesday to decide haha. Just didn’t want to have a big gap between pick up and some kind of wrap.

Hopefully taking delivery next month. Did you get this the front and tint done in SD? If so, where? Any recommendations for type of tint, percentage, and PPF?

 

[tangible1]

The front of the MY is a road garbage collector. Worse, mine is white, so the asphalt bits and bug strikes show.
I took delivery of a MYLR on Jan 16. Just 10 days into it, there was already a paint chip on the nose.

I had a pro do the front bumper and full hood of the MYLR
I bought some pre-cut 3M Pro film for the full rockers and installed myself. Long flat pieces are a relatively easy install. No complex curves. Came out near perfect.
I also purchased a roll of 3M Pro film.
I used that to do a couple areas on the rear bumper cover - small areas low down where debris gets thrown, and the hatchback cargo deck bumper lip.

The only real trick to PPF installs is the edges. Let the film overhang the edges just a little.
Let it dry for a bit, then use a heat gun set on low, which takes the surface tension out of the film, allowing the overhangs to curl around the metal edges and seal.
Also, make sure you've got good lighting so you can see bubbles and wrinkles. Use lots of slip solution and keep your fingers wet as well.